Chalk up another small victory for a Kains St. resident who has spent the past four years “living next door to a disaster.”
Pauline Wimbush, whose 1890’s-era house abuts an abandoned and derelict cottage-style house at 46 Kains St., has battled Mayor Heather Jackson and city hall in an attempt to have the vermin-ridden structure demolished.
Due to increasing difficulty navigating stairs in her large home, Wimbush is anxious to sell her home and move to a single-storey residence. To date, no real estate agent has shown any interest with what she calls “a tragedy in waiting” lurking to the west of her residence.
In July, after a visit by fire prevention officers Bill Todd and Brian Leverton, the broken windows, missing brickwork and collapsing rear roof were boarded up. Continue reading →

Don’t believe a drum roll was ordered but years of bickering, speculating and fear-mongering were laid to rest Thursday at city hall.
That’s when tenders for construction of the new St. Thomas Police Service headquarters were opened with 11 contractors pre-qualified and nine of those submitting quotes.
At this point in the process, the lowest bid is $10.7 million from a Brampton firm, M.J. Dixon Construction.
“The Ventin Group, our architects, have all of the information and will be analyzing all of that to make sure there wasn’t anything missing from the tenders and qualifying all of that like we do with all tenders,” CAO Wendell Graves explained on Friday.
“It will take them a couple of days to do that,” Wendell continued. “Our intention is to have a report to council for Aug. 10 relating to the tender. Continue reading →

Friday afternoon we received a copy of a release from the Holiday Fantasy of Lights committee advising it is pulling the plug on the popular Pinafore Park winter festival.
“For 21 years, Fantasy of Lights has made Pinafore Park a beautiful winter wonderland of lights and display, with many families and people coming to the park to enjoy,” the release notes.
“With the retirement of our chairman and many senior committee members two years ago, we had to fold for a year. With a lot of effort over the last few months, we got a new chairman and some committee members, and had great ideas for the upcoming year.
“We have worked hard to get up and running for this season, but with all of the challenges that have been handed to us from the City and Parks Department, we have decided to fold the Fantasy of Lights for good.” Continue reading →

Not unlike the vehicles using them, the city’s consolidated courthouse parking program has required several major tuneups over the past year or so.
And the tinkering is nowhere near completion, based on the frustration level at Metcalfe Gardens where staff, residents and visitors are calling for a policy overhaul.
Prior to the opening of the new court facility in March, 2014, friends and relatives visiting the seniors residence could always park on the surrounding streets with nary a worry of being ticketed.
All that changed when the city and province reached an agreement whereby 315 parking spaces would be provided within a 300-metre radius of the courthouse.
That led to construction of the Crocker St. parking lot and several along the north side of Centre St., combined with a major crackdown on free on-street parking in the courthouse neighbourhood. Continue reading →

The frustration was clearly evident in the voice of Pauline Wimbush. “It’s like having a child or a pet that you are neglecting.”

Friday was her “day in court,” so to speak, when she was invited to city hall to present her concerns about living next door to a derelict house at 46 Kains St. — whose owner continues to pay property taxes but resides in Holland.

Homeless advocate Jason McComb has walked his way through June and on this last weekend of the month, he will spend time in Sudbury
We caught up with Jason on Friday as he departed Sturgeon Falls — and above the roar of passing big rigs — he recounted his meeting in that community with a small group of elementary school students and their teacher on an outing.
Needless to say it was the type of first-person encounter those impressionable young people will long remember.
And it was an opportunity for him to stress again, his cross-Canada trek is not about fundraising, instead it’s about raising awareness for those who are homeless — society’s lost souls whose numbers now include Canadian veterans.
Jason put it this way. Continue reading →